The Blizzard Battle.net Mobile App lets you stay connected with your friends wherever you are. Chat with friends, see what game they're playing, and add new ones - right from your mobile device.

Chat with friends:
With mobile chat, it's easier to coordinate play time, discuss strategies, or just stay in touch. Even if your friends are unavailable or offline, chat history and notifications keep the conversation going.

See what your friends are playing:
You can see at a glance what all your friends are up to, so you know when to jump into a game – or when to get one going yourself. Never miss an opportunity to play together.

Add new friends on the go:
All the features for managing and adding friends on the Battle.net Desktop App are now on your phone. Send and receive friend requests, browse friend suggestions, or even scan a QR code to easily add friends in person.

Airtime or Wi-Fi connection required for use.

Patch 7.3 Hotfixes - September 26

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

Argus

Account-wide access to World Quests and treasures in Antoran Wastes is now allowed once "The Assault Begins" chapter of the Argus campaign has been completed.

Account-wide access to Invasion Points and Greater Invasion Points is now allowed once the "Dark Awakenings" chapter of the Argus campaign has been completed.

A new weekly quest and rewards are here—steel yourself for Battleground combat!

Seven Days on the Battlegrounds
All this week, heading to the Battlegrounds will net you some extra Honor along with bonus loot for completing this week’s quest. To enter the fray, open Group Finder (default hotkey: I) and then select the Player vs. Player tab. Next choose Casual, select Random Battlegrounds, and hit the Join Battle button—you’ll be matched up with other players and sent to one of the 11 battlegrounds.

Weekly Quest
Before you get started, Archmage Timear near Violet Hold in Dalaran has a quest for you. Win four random Battlegrounds, and you’ll be rewarded with 5 Marks of Honor, a Badge of Honor (1000 Honor), and a Glory of the Melee Artifact Power token (base 500 AP).

Battleground Buff
This week you gain 50% more Honor in Battlegrounds.

A New Event Every Week
The Bonus Events system consists of a rotating schedule of different activities, currently scheduled to run each week beginning on Tuesdays. Each Bonus Event grants a passive bonus to a particular game activity and offers a once-per-event quest with a noteworthy reward for accomplishing a related goal. The in-game calendar can serve as your one-stop reference for the event schedule. The Adventure Guide also offers a direct link to active Bonus Events, allowing you to easily accept any associated quests.

If I have 2 relics both with the Torment of the weak passive, do I get 2 separate stacks or more uptime on 1?
When you have multiple relics with that trait, it's the damage that is increased. There should still only be one debuff on the target. (WarcraftDevs)

Game Developer Tweets

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Do you think there is a direct correlation between power without gameplay and lowered satisfaction?
Absolutely, but it won’t manifest immediately. In the short term, being overpowered and hard to counter feels great. You’re winning a lot without having to work as hard at it. It’s a rush. But it’s a temporary sugar rush. Later you start to lose interest and aren’t sure why.

It’s the same feeling the first time you turn on god mode on any game. I ran through Contra once with invincibility on and sort of lost interest. When I first went to work on WoW, I poked around in all of the raid instances to see how the bosses were actually built (like how did Deep Breath actually work), but it wasn’t fun to go around and one-shot them all with dev tools. Wooo. I’m so powerful. Crickets.

I should also add that it’s possible to have abilities or mechanics that can still feel satisfying to use even if the champion overall has too much power without gameplay. Abilities that are responsive, that have good visuals and audio that match your expectations, and have good feedback, can be satisfying. That doesn’t mean the whole character package is though. (Source)

Curse is Hiring!
Are you interested in working on some of the most popular gaming websites in the world? Check out our many open positions and see if Curse is the right fit for you!

Huntsville, AL

Software Development Manager - You'll be responsible for supporting business growth, user engagement, and security through effective development team management and engineering practices

Front End Developer - Work with designers and developers to develop modern, intuitive user interfaces for our web properties.

Battle.Net Patch 1.9 Build 9397 - Now With Emoji Support
The Battle.Net App was updated today to group your favorites, sort your friends by activity, additional emoji support, and more!

Netherlight Crucible Update

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

Hey guys!

We’ve been seeing a lot of discussion going back and forth on the Crucible lately, so we’ve had some conversations with the development team and I wanted to pop in and share a few points that came out of it.

Regarding comparisons to Reforging – Reforging was always a simple, mechanical choice. Players were, at the end of the day, simply replacing their worst stats with best stats on every item that didn’t already have your best stats up to a mechanical limit. The Crucible, by comparison, is only affecting a small subset of items and presents much more varied situations than say “change 30 Hit Chance into Haste”.

We’ve also seen a bit of discussion around players desiring the ability to respec the Traits that are locked on the second and third tiers of relics. We feel that the ability to respect Traits would lead to players picking traits based on perfect optimization for any given situation, which could lead to players leaving a raid to change to AoE-centric traits for the next fight during raid progression. While we feel that’s a nuisance in itself, this would also make the system feel like a watered-down version of talent rows, and would undermine the choice that is made when selecting your Relic Traits.

That being said, Relics are items and will be replaced; we do expect players to make choices and experiment with this system. Since there is still new content ahead of us in Antorus, better Relics will be available and players who make choices they may not like now will have the opportunity to get new Relics before long with a potentially new set of Trait choices.

As a note, we are also fine with the current state that Relics Soulbind on inspection in the Crucible. We believe the alternative of everyone porting in and out of the raid to pass the relic around and see who it’s best for is far, far worse. Players are smart and will be able to make educated decisions based on the information that’s available to them. As I said, we do expect experimentation however.

A final note: I saw the post on Reddit laying out three choices for Relics, asking players which one they would pick -
Relic A : 930 Ilvl BiS main trait, 3rd BiS bonus trait, but forces worst tier 2 crucible trait
Relic B : 915 ilvl BiS main and bonus trait and 2nd BiS crucible tier 2 trait
Relic C : 940 ilvl 2nd and 4th BiS traits and BiS crucible tier 2 trait.The poster responded by saying the only way to know is to sim it. If you’re generally a player who simulates gear upgrades to make decisions, you’re probably going to do that anyway, and that’s fine. If you’re a player going off basic guidelines such as “I play a fire mage so I want Critical Strike” you will get by as you always do in this situation and pick what you think is best for your particular class or spec.

Thanks for all the feedback on the topic so far, I’ll be on the lookout for future discussions, as always.

The Mythic Dungeon Invitational Weekend 2 This Saturday and Sunday!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The competition has begun and with weekend one behind us, we’re looking forward to weekend 2 with teams from Europe and the Americas teams taking their shot this weekend.

Weekend 2: Europe and The Americas
Europe: Saturday, September 23 at 5:00 a.m. PDT
The Americas: Sunday, September 24 at 9:00 a.m PDT

We’ve chosen 32 teams who have pushed themselves to the limit and proven they are ready for their next challenge in the Mythic Dungeon Invitational. Eight teams from China, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas will compete over the span of three weekends to see who will make it to the top 8 before moving on to the semi-finals and finals.

So, What's Next?
Each team will compete over three weekends head-to-head within the Mythic Dungeons. Two teams will advance from each region during a single-elimination, best-of-3 format. These teams will need to balance speed, skill, and strategy to claim their victory over their opponents. Keystone levels and affixes will be determined by Blizzard and all competition will take place on special tournament realms in which all players compete on an even playing field.

Check out the list of Keystone Affixes that we’ll be putting into play during the competition:

Affix 1

Sanguine

Teeming

Bolstering

Raging

Explosive

Affix 2

Quaking

Volcanic

Explosive

Grievous

Volcanic

Affix 3

Tyrannical

Tyrannical

Fortified

Fortified

Teeming

Event Schedule
The competition all begins this weekend on Twitch Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16 when the top teams in China begin their bid to make it to the Global top 8.

Play Overwatch Free September 22–25 on PC, PlayStation® 4, and Xbox One

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

Attention, recruits! If you haven't already had the opportunity to suit up and save the world as one of the heroes of Overwatch, now's your chance.

From September 22–25, we're calling on all prospective agents: assemble your team and dive in during the Overwatch Free Weekend on PC, PlayStation 4, or Xbox One!

For this free weekend, we're making Overwatch's full roster of 25 heroes and 16 maps available for play in a variety of modes, including Quick Play, Custom Games, and the Arcade. Players will also have the ability to level up, earn Loot Boxes, and unlock a variety of different customization options.

Plus, if you decide to purchase Overwatch after test driving the game, you'll get to keep any progress that you made during the weekend—just be sure to use the same Blizzard, Sony Entertainment, or Xbox Live account that you played on.

For more details and to learn how you can participate, read on below!

Deployment Schedule
The Overwatch Free Weekend will run from September 22–25. PlayStation 4 owners with a PlayStation Plus membership, Xbox One owners with an Xbox Live Gold membership, and Windows PC users with a Battle.net account will be able to download and play Overwatch for FREE during this period—no special keys or sign-up codes needed!

The free period will begin on September 22 at 11am PT and end on September 25 at 11:59pm PT in all participating regions across all platforms. If you'd like to see when the weekend will go live in your region, check out the guides below. For additional time zone assistance, please visit timezoneconverter.com.

The Overwatch Free Weekend may not be available on all platforms in all regions. See our FAQ for details.

This Week in WoW History
We're taking a look back at old MMO-Champion posts and World of Warcraft news that occurred during this time in previous years.

Legion Max Level Content Unlocked
Legion allowed players to take their time leveling, delaying most of the max level content that people had previously rushed to level for until a few weeks after release. During this week, Normal and Heroic Emerald Nightmare unlocked, World Bosses started spawning, Mythic+ Dungeons opened, and the first PvP season started.

BlizzCon 2015 In-Game Goodies Round-Up
BlizzCon 2017 is rapidly approaching and we've already seen the new Horde and Alliance mounts that we will get this year. Looking back to 2015 we see the final in-game goodies roundup that included the incredibly cute and dangerous Murkidan, a Nexus Battle Beast Mount in Heroes, Hearthstone card back, Starcraft II Portraits, and a Pennant, Pet, and Portrait for Diablo III players.

Warlords of Draenor In-Game Cinematics
During Warlords of Draenor Beta, Blizzard released all of the cinematics from the initial Warlords of Draenor campaign at once. This was done because the team was aware that some players enjoy spoilers and would seek out the cinematics on fansites. These included the iconic scene with Garrosh and Thrall, Yrel, Velen, the Warlords, and more.

Mists of Pandaria Zone Previews
As more and more of Mists of Pandaria was being revealed, players finally got a chance to check out what some of the zones would look like. The previews included Krasarang Wilds, Dread Wastes, and Townlong Steppes. These offered some different environments and creatures than players had ever before scene, introducing the Klaxxi, Yaungol, and more Sha. Krasarang Wilds was a vibrant forest-like area teeming with all kinds of flora and fauna, Townlong Steppes housed the Shado-pan Garrison, and the Dread Wastes was an ashen and torn environment being overrun by Klaxxi.

Appear Offline Coming "Soon"
It may not seem like it, but it now has been five years since the Appear Offline "Coming Soon" notice was posted! Questions about the status of the feature is a favorite among BlizzCon Q&A topics. In the years since, we got an update about adding Appear Offline to Overwatch in 2016, another update in 2017, and strings that refer to appearing offline were added to Hearthstone this year. For now, the Appear Offline feature appears to still be coming "Soon".

If you're not familiar with their story, don't feel too bad. Despite having statues dedicated to them in Stormwind's Valley of Heroes, items and outposts named for them, and a grown son, the two have been MIA for the last 20 plus years of Azeroth's history. A Thousand Years of War catches us up on all that lost time.

But what were they doing before all that? And why is important that they make a return now? Let's get you caught up on their story of love and war before A Thousand Years of War catches you up on the rest.

Even if you don't know the details of these two lovebirds, you should be familiar with Alleria from her surname alone: Windrunner. The Windrunners are one of the oldest and most respected families of high elves, dating all the way back to the War of the Ancients. Alleria was foremost among her family, expected to succeed her mother Lireesa as the Ranger-General of Silvermoon. Instead, she chose to walk the path of the Farstriders--a group of high elves who roamed the whole of Azeroth protecting the interests of their people. Eventually, it would be Alleria's sister Sylvannas who would take the role of Silvermoon's Ranger General before the Scourge made her the Queen of the Forsaken.

It was during her time with the Farstriders that Alleria would first meet Turalyon, and from that fateful encounter they would be as inseparable as kobolds from candles.

Together, Turalyon and Alleria fought the orcish horde during and after the Second War, becoming close comrades and even closer friends. After a particularly devastating raid on Silvermoon City that saw a portion of the Windrunner family destroyed, Alleria sought comfort in her close friend, and the two became lovers shortly after that. It wasn't long before their son, Arator, was born of that union.

They fought battle after battle against the orcs, knowing little peace beyond each other. Their war eventually took them beyond the Dark Portal and into Draenor, hoping to stop the orc threat at the source.

But it was not to be.

The orc shaman and leader of the Horde, Ner'zhul, sought to escape defeat by opening portal after portal on Draenor, giving his Horde access to new and unspoiled worlds ripe for conquest. His powerful magic quickly became unstable and began to rip Draenor apart, sending the orcish armies into a panic and making them desperate to escape the splintering planet through the Dark Portal.

Alleria and Turalyon understood what they had to do. While they fought to keep the orcs on the Draenor side of the portal, Khadgar and his mages worked to close the portal for good, keeping Azeroth and all their loved ones shielded from Draenor's total destruction.

The ensuing chaos of Draenor's sundering into Outland ripped the pair from the world and they disappeared. When the Dark Portal opened again, Khadgar and the rest were found. Alleria and Turalyon were not. So where were they?

In the Twisting Nether, lost from space and time until they were found by the Mother of Light herself, the naaru Xe'ra.

A Thousand Years of War picks up here. It tells the story of Alleria and Turalyon's journey with the Grand Army of Light and how their new found powers could determine the fate of all life. They could even hold the key to defeating the Legion once and for all. I'm not going to spoil the specifics here, so check it out for yourself. And when you do, you'll see why theirs is one of the greatest love stories WoW ever told (that wasn't Illidan and his brooding).